Gambling Catholic nun accused of embezzling $850,000 (updated)

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(Photo: A poker table in Atlantic City, New Jersey, March 14, 2009/Tim Shaffer)

A nun with a fondness for gambling trips to Atlantic City was accused of embezzling more than $850,000 from a suburban Catholic college where she oversaw the school’s finances, officials said on Friday.

Sister Marie Thornton, former vice president of finance at Iona College in New Rochelle, New York, is charged with sending phony invoices to the school to pay off personal credit card bills and expenses, the Attorney’s office said.

The thefts occurred between 1999 and 2009, when Thornton resigned, court documents said. She entered a plea of not guilty to a federal embezzlement charge.